Jim Elliot Quotes

I wish I were with some of the wild people that run in the woods, and know nothing about accomplishments!

My definition of freedom is still ruled by the reluctance to live a conventional life, from Emilio Salgari's pirates.

There is always the temptation in life to diddle around making itsy-bitsy friends and meals and journeys for years on end. It is all so self conscience, so apparently moral...But I won't have it. The world is wilder than that in all directions, more dangerous...more extravagant and bright. We are...raising tomatoes when we should be raising Cain, or Lazarus.

I never liked dolls or played house. I read and wrote, climbed trees, collected rocks, rode my bike, and befriended boys, platonically.

I think life on the road really suits very egotistical men. It's set up for kings.

Once boys' and men's challenges are clear, the question 'why now' quickly becomes 'why didn't we see this sooner?' The answer? Virtually every society that survived did so by socializing its sons to be disposable.

I grew up with my cousins, who were as close as brothers, and frankly, I didn't like what girls were expected to do. I liked horseback riding, playing football, going to rodeos. I wanted to be in jeans all the time, and I couldn't figure out why I was supposed to conform to a certain standard, so I didn't.

You were once wild here. Don't let them tame you.

I think that what I'm attracted to is people who are wild. But the self-destructive side comes out of the wild side. The wildness is very different from me. That's why I think I like it.

I didn't want kabobs, Afghan music, and rules that required girls to be carefully monitored. I wanted mac and cheese, country music, and independence.

Biker chicks want the bad boy.

I had no money. I just figured out hustles to get by, like maybe selling my clothes. I wanted to travel around and be broke and live in sketchy apartments.

I'd rather go to Vietnam than get married.

I'm an escapist. I'm not a planner; I've never made a decision about anything in my life. The good thing about Africa is that you can escape forever. You can do what you want without someone looking over your shoulder.

I had a wonderful childhood, but I was a wanderer from year one.

Wear what you want to wear. Do what you want to do. Be who you are. Pick out your own clothes. Be a man. And if that's too much to ask, as it almost always is for me, think of someone you consider to be a man and pretend to be like him. I pretend to be like my dad.

Age brings a freedom. When you're young, you're much more subject to the idea of what feminine is or how you should look or how you should behave.

I had a difficult time hearing my own inner voice about what I wanted to be in this life, because there were all these perfect examples of what a man actually does. The notion is that he goes to college, gets married and provides. That's what a man does.

Genius is always impatient of its harness; its wild blood makes it hard to train.

I was always a tomboy growing up in Africa.

Contrary to what a lot of people think, I haven't been domesticated.

Jeep represents a way of life. It's not just a car.

I've always had a desire to live on the outside. That's where I'm most comfortable.

Men have been domesticated, and I don't think it's necessarily good for them. They have been emasculated with the pill and women becoming more independent. I do think it's made a big difference for women to have more charge of their own bodies. It's made them feel more on equal terms and made the men feel less secure, less the master of everything.

When a man cuts himself absolutely adrift from custom, what an astonishingly light spar floats him! How few his wants are, after all!